It would have been an amazing siting on any day for a father and son. But this was a very special day. It was the first time Monaco’s residents and Monegasques could feel the freedom of the quarantine being lifted. And what better treat for his two sons and a friend than their father take them out for a fishing trip.
No time to spare. At 6 am the call to freedom, fresh air and sea spray and a 6.30 am launch from Fontveille. Twenty minutes in the beautiful Monegasque waters of the Mediterranean, faces to the breeze, and fishing lines at the ready the day unfolded.
This really caught the imagination of everyone who heard this story including the press, especially as they could report it was the former AS Monaco player Gregory Campi. The catch was nothing to report on because for almost two hours it lacked a good specimen. Indeed it was lucky the Campi’s lines didn’t tangle with what they eventually encountered.
Reports are that first a geyser appeared in the distance. Dolphins perhaps which are prevalent.
Silently waiting with the engines cut, a 13 metres long whale, and by all reports probably a Great Sperm Whale, circled the boat, circling twice before disappearing into the Mediterranean depths.
Nature is certainly a wondrous thing. With the human race having been confined, fish and sea mammals sense their liberty to roam. There have been numerous dolphin sightings , even a shark close to shore in Menton and then this fascinating sighting of an enormous whale. Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum would have been the perfect backdrop – and at least the Campifamily would have passed it on their way out.
There is an expression when something fun and fascinating happens – “to have a whale of a time”. On this occasion both metaphorically and literally that’s what happened to a lucky Monegasque family in May.
